2006-01-23: NOGLSTP to Honor Sieh, Ventzek, Denton, and Parga at 2006 Awards Ceremony in February

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Date: January 23, 2006

NOGLSTP to Honor Sieh, Ventzek, Denton, and Parga at 2006 Awards Ceremony in February

The National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of its GLBT Scientist, Engineer, and Educator of the Year Awards and the Walt Westman Awardee: Dr.Kerry Sieh, Dr. Peter Ventzek, Dr. Denise Denton, and Mr. Michael Parga, respectively. These awards will be presented at a ceremony during the NOGLSTP Reception at the upcoming 2006 AAAS Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on February 19, 4-6 pm, in the Westmoreland Room at the Renaissance Grand Hotel. All interested people are welcome to attend this reception and awards ceremony; registration for the AAAS Annual Meeting is not required.

Dr Kerry Sieh,of West Hollywood, California has been selected as the recipient of the 2006 NOGLSTP GLBT Scientist Award. This award is made to the GLBT Scientist who has made outstanding contributions in their field, recognizing sustained contributions in research and education as well as the societal significance of these contributions and achievements. Dr. Sieh has been chosen to receive this award because of his outstanding achievements in earth science as well as his leadership in the GLBT community. His research in earthquake geology (neotectonics and paleoseismology) documenting ancient earthquakes and slip rates along California, Sumatra, and Taiwan faults has set the standard for quantitative estimates of the probability of future destructive earthquakes. Throughout his career, Dr. Sieh has been openly gay and has provided clear leadership within the GLBT community through his service as a faculty advisor to Caltech’s Student Pride Association. Dr. Sieh has been a Professor of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California since 1986. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Peter Ventzek of Austin, TX is the recipient of the 2006 NOGLSTP GLBT Engineer Award. This award recognizes a GLBT Engineer who has made outstanding contributions in their field, and recognizes sustained contributions in design, production, management, or research. Dr. Ventzek has been chosen to receive this award because of his outstanding technical achievements and his leadership in the GLBT community. This award honors his major contributions to improvements in the semiconductor industry, with specific emphasis on modeling and simulations to enhance etching processes while reducing costs and time to market, as well as his support of GLBT employees at Freescale and participation in the Freescale EQUAL employee group. Dr. Ventzek has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan. He is currently the manager of Advanced Products Research and Development Laboratory at Freescale and the chair of the Plasma Science & Technology Division of the American Vacuum Society (AVS).

Dr. Denice Denton is the recipient of the 2006 NOGLSTP Educator Award. This award is made to the GLBTA Educator who has enabled significant growth for GLBT students in science or technology – through teaching, counseling, advocacy, role modeling, or other educational roles. Dr. Denton has been chosen to receive this award because of her outstanding achievements in engineering and education in addition to her leadership in the GLBT community. Throughout her career in education, she has been committed to the ideal of excellence and to its close compatibility with diversity, diverting or creating the necessary resources to make it happen. In May 2004, she was among nine scholars honored by the White House with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, recognizing her role as a major leader in enhancing diversity in science and engineering. At the same time she has been an outstanding role model to the GLBT community by showing that being out at work, including a life-partner in a public manner, and obtaining career success, are not mutually exclusive parameters. Dr. Denton is currently Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also holds a UCSC appointment as Professor of Electrical Engineering. Previously she was Dean of the College of Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), the first woman to hold such a position at an NRC-designated Research One university. She has held academic appointments at the University of Massachusetts, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, and the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Michael Parga of La Mirada, California has been selected as the recipient of the 2006 NOGLSTP Walt Westman Award. This award is the highest national award given to a NOGLSTP Member who has shown dedication and commitment to the advancement of NOGLSTP’s mission. This prestigious award recognizes the unselfish and outstanding contributions of the honoree, whose activities — carried on continuously over a period of years — have brought honor and esteem to the Organization by their very character. He or she symbolizes, as did Walt Westman, the ideal role model to GLBT engineers and scientists today by preaching aloud that “it can be done”. Mr Parga was chosen to receive this award because of his long time support of and continuing contributions to NOGLSTP. Before he was even a NOGLSTP Member, Michael took on the task of doing all the legwork for incorporation and filing for non-profit status on behalf of NOGLSTP. He contacted the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board, acquired all the forms, filled them out, and sent them in, shepherding the process from beginning to end. His early efforts on behalf of NOGLSTP enabled the organization to become the non-profit entity that it is today.

NOGLSTP is a national organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people (and their advocates) employed or interested in scientific or high technology fields. NOGLSTP’s goals include dialogue with professional organizations, disseminating information, improving our members employment and professional environment, opposing anti-queer discrimination and stereotypes, educating the queer, scientific, and general communities, and fostering inter-city contacts among our members. National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists Inc. is a non-profit educational organization under IRS section 501(c)(3), and is an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

NOGLSTP is:

a professional society that educates and advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics